BROCKTON – If you were waiting for a life-saving transplant, would you accept the organs of a convicted killer and white supremacist?

Jenny Williams said she would.

Williams, a West Bridgewater mother of two, underwent kidney transplant surgery Friday at Tufts Medical Center and was listed in good condition Saturday.

She had been among 2,185 people on a wait list for a kidney in Massachusetts, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

Before her surgery, Williams endured dialysis three overnights each week. She said it wouldn’t matter where the kidney came from – even if it were from someone known for committing evil acts and proclaiming hate.

“No matter how bad he is, he was important to somebody. He was somebody’s kid. And yes, I would take it,” Williams, 50, said. “I owe it to my family to take it.”

She spoke after the Brockton mother of convicted double-murderer and rapist Keith Luke donated his organs after Luke committed suicide in prison on May 10.

Luke was kept on life support for two days after his suicide attempt so arrangements could be made to donate his organs, which were received by “several” recipients, said two authoritative sources. It was unclear Thursday which of Luke’s organs were donated and how many transplant recipients received his organs.

Keith Luke, 28, a self-proclaimed white supremacist who once carved a swastika into his forehead, was convicted in May 2013 of killing two people and raping and shooting a third in a hate-filled rampage in Brockton in January 2009. All three victims were of Cape Verdean descent.

While a sensitive and emotional issue – and some might argue, a moral one – the donation of Luke’s organs to help save others is more importantly a humanitarian issue, one local pastor said.

“In a way, I would consider it a victory to be able to take something that people would think is evil and make it into something that is good,” said the Rev. R. Steven Warner, pastor of Brockton Assembly of God Church

Warner said he thinks that in extreme cases like Luke’s, an organ recipient should be informed about the donor’s background, so they can decide if they want the organs.

“If you’re building a house over Chernobyl, you’ve got a right to know what happened there,” Warner said, referring to the catastrophic nuclear accident in 1986 in Ukraine.

But spiritually speaking, Warner also doesn’t think organs coming from an “evil” killer would spread that evil into an organ recipient.

“I do not think that they would,” he said.

There are 122,729 people awaiting organ transplants nationwide, of which 100,596 are awaiting a kidney donor, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Page 2 of 2 - It is unknown how many inmates have donated their organs nationally. The United Network for Organ Sharing does not collect any social information on donors or recipients, said spokeswoman Anne Paschke.

Nationally, thousands of people die every year awaiting an organ transplant, Paschke said.

“On average, 79 people are transplanted every day in this country. But another 17 to 18 die waiting,” Paschke said. “Just one person signing up on their state registry could save or enhance the lives of 50 people through organ, eye and tissue donation.”

The issue of organ donations from prisoners has received support from members of the medical community who stress the need for organ donors.

In a 2012 manuscript published by the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Shu S. Lin noted a “seemingly insurmountable shortage of donor organs” and his rationale for allowing death row inmates, specifically, to donate their organs.

“This is obviously a very sensitive issue because there’s a lot of emotion that’s put into this population,” said Lin, a surgeon at the Duke Pulmonary Transplant Clinic in Durham, N.C. “But, in the end, as a health care professional, it’s about saving people’s lives.”

Three decades ago, when organ transplantation was in its infancy, Charlie Fiske led a pioneering effort to find a liver for his 11-month-old daughter, Jamie, who was dying.

He went across the country seeking a donor, then to the media and finally to Congress – his relentless work not only saved his daughter’s life, but hundreds of others, as it led to a new awareness and the start of the national organ transplant bank. Jamie is now 32 and doing well, he said.

People awaiting life-saving transplants are not in a position to be selective, Fiske, 68, said.

“If the organ is coming from somebody in prison or someone who has never committed a crime, it doesn’t make any difference for the person receiving it,” Fiske said.

Maria Papadopoulos may be reached at mpapa@enterprisenews.com or follow on Twitter @MariaP_ENT